Persons have long been rescued by safety throws of one kind or another. These include life savers aboard ships, throws with a harness-like vest that can be placed on a person in distress and hauled to safety. Many such safety throws have been proposed in past years. However, each of these types of throws have disadvantages.
These rescue apparatus have a number of common properties. First, such safety throws or rescue apparatus for water rescue must be floatable. In many circumstances, such a rescue apparatus that is thrown to a person in peril in the water cannot easily be grasped by the person if the rescue apparatus should sink. Additionally, such a rescue apparatus would not useful if it does not assist the person in staying afloat. As such, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved universally favorable rescue apparatus that floats when thrown into water.
Additionally, it is important for rescue apparatus to be in an convenient package for transporting the safety throw when not in use. Prior art life savers aboard ship are hung on the side of the ship with a visible coil of cord attached thereto. To transport the same, both the large coil of cord and the life saver itself must be transported, both of which are extremely bulky. As such, it is important to provide a safety throw that is small in size, light weight, and in a pack that can be easily transported to the person to be rescued.
In cold weather, a person in perilous waters may be suffering from hypothermia. Persons suffering from hypothermia usually cannot grasp any kind of life saving device or cord. Thus, it is highly desirable to provide a rescue apparatus that can be used by persons suffering from hypothermia.
In the past various patents have issued relating to inflatable cuff devices and rescue apparatus. An early patent relating to the subject is found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,611,427, issued on Dec. 21, 1926 to G. Evans. This patent describes a sleeve that aids in natation. This sleeve is suitably inflatable so as to extend around a limb of the person. When secured onto the limb of the person, the air within the inflatable bladder provides buoyancy for the person in the water.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 357,722, issued on Apr. 25, 1995 to A. F. Fireman, describes an arm float with a plurality of inflatable chambers that are elastically connected together so as to wrap around the arm, shoulder, or leg of the person in water.
U.S. Pat. No. 149,513, issued in April 1874 to M. Ormsbee, describes a life preserver that has an annular sack filled with air or with cotton, ground cork, or other buoyant material. The sack is adapted to be worn upon the arm as a sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,967, issued on Feb. 13, 2001 to F. Messina, describes an elevation support for elevating a human limb of a patient to a desired elevation. This support has a body with a longitudinal aperture therethrough and an insertion opening for receiving at least a portion of the limb. The body is shaped to permit concomitant rolling motion along a support surface when the patient exerts a rotational force on the body via the inserted limb while maintaining the limb at the desired elevation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,626, issued on Mar. 18, 2003 to M. Pons, provides an arm on-board device for the rescuing a person from the sea so as to enable a conscious person to rescue himself. A floating trailing end is adapted to be recovered by the person in the sea and serves as a control means to activate the release of the towrope floating element. The floating element is connected to the boat by an end serving as a towrope and having a means serving as a shock absorber. The floating element is provided with towrope attachments. The floating element has a hydrodynamic shape and entirely or partially supports the rescuee with a minimum of resistance to pulling through water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,976, issued on May 27, 2003 to Anderson et al., teaches a flotation cushion with deployable tether. A pocket is formed in the flotation cushion to conform to existing cushion structures. The tether is stored in the pocket in a manner to minimize bulging. With the tether attached at one end to the flotation cushion interior to the pocket, the flotation cushion may be thrown to a person in need of rescue while the user is grasping the tether at its free end. When the person to be rescued grabs the flotation cushion, the tether may be used to retrieve the person and cushion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,743, issued on Jan. 20, 2004 to S. P. Gerber, discloses a safety throw comprising a bag having a bottom with a bottom opening therein. A float is positioned in the bag. A cord ends extends through the float. The float is positioned in the bag between the opposite ends of the cord to partition the bag into a first cord section and a second harness section. The harness is stored in the section adjacent the bag bottom and on the opposite side of the float from the cord section. The bag has a weight with the harness and float in the bag such that the bag may be thrown to a person in peril. The harness may be attached to the person in peril and the person in peril may be pulled to safety by the cord.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus that can be secured to the limb of a rescuee.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus whereby the apparatus is suitably buoyant so as to support the person on a body of water.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus which can remotely secured to a limb of the person so as to facilitate the pulling of the person to safety.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus whereby the rescuee can manually activate the rescue apparatus for buoyancy and for rescue.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus which will not injure the limb of the person to which it is secured.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus that can be easily stowed, easily deployed and easily applied.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a rescue apparatus which easy to manufacture, relatively inexpensive and easy to use.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.